NASA Seeks Civilian Input on Space Direction

The space agency posts a Website seeking public comments, questions and suggestions about the future of U.S. manned space flights to complement President Obama's U.S. Human Space Flight review ordered in May.

NASA's Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans is operating under Obama's
direction to "conduct an independent review of ongoing U.S. human space
flight plans and programs, as well as alternatives, to ensure the nation is pursuing
the best trajectory for the future of human space flight-one that is safe,
innovative, affordable, and sustainable."

NASA has spent almost $6.9 billion on the plan to be back on the moon by 2020
to establish a lunar
outpost for future space expeditions, and the agency continues to spend
$300 million per month on the program. Former President George W. Bush
introduced the moon program in the wake of the 2003 space shuttle Columbia
accident.

Under the plan, NASA plans to retire the space shuttle program by the end of
the year to focus on returning to the moon. A blue ribbon panel of experts will
conduct the review, led by Lockheed Martin CEO
Norman Augustine. "I am a real believer in the value of this nation's
human spaceflight activities and will do everything I can to provide the
information needed to help maintain the spectacular arc of progress NASA has
fueled for five decades," Augustine said in a statement.

The panel's first public meeting will be held June 17 in Washington,
the same day NASA is launching two satellites to the moon in preparation for
the next stage in the lunar plan. The LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) and
the LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) will launch
together aboard an Atlas V rocket from Florida's
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The LRO will help identify safe landing sites for future human explorers,
locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment and test new
technology. LCROSS will seek a definitive answer about the presence of water
ice at the lunar poles.

"LRO is an amazingly sophisticated spacecraft," Craig Tooley, LRO
project manager, said at a May briefing on the mission. "Its suite of
instruments will work in concert to send us data in areas where we've been
hungry for information for years."